The advent of mobile phones and associated services, such as Instant Messaging (IM) has provided a great impetus to social networking by facilitating instant and efficient communication among friends and acquaintances. Although they provide a great deal of on-demand communication capability, mobile phones and similar communication devices are still exclusively voice or text based communication devices. People who communicate using mobile phones are, by definition, usually in different geographic locations. Present mobile phone systems may facilitate the coordination of meetings and events by making it easier for people to converse while on the go, but they still involve traditional methods of communication and response. The process of two or more people getting together and coordinating their activities and schedules to interact in person still requires that the people contact one another and ask who is where, and what is going on when. For a network of even a few friends, this can require several phone calls or message sessions to coordinate an activity.
What is needed, therefore, is a mobile communication system that facilitates social interaction and activity coordination by incorporating location information as part of the mobile phone communication.